Headline: Ohio Church Has $2,000 Grow Into $10,000 By Following Parable of the Talents

By Paula Pyzik Scott

Bluffton Presbyterian Church is celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2024. Located at Cherry and Main streets and providing what is effectively the village’s town square, the church is a prominent landmark and institution in Bluffton.

It’s still a bit of a surprise to learn that the church once graced the front page of the New York Times, a publication that currently has over 10 million subscribers.

On June 23, 1947, Bluffton Presbyterian Church shared the NYT front page with stories about hot weather and crowds at Coney Island beach and 271 sightseers being stranded on a boat near the mouth of the Hudson River.

The article detailed how the 172 members of the congregation were given $10 to put to work in support of the church. $9,152 in cash and an estimated $421.25 in projects yet to be realized were gathered in unmarked envelopes in the collection plate on June 22.

Reverend E. N. Bigelow borrowed the initial $2,000 in a plan to fund remodeling of the church, which was then 98 years old. However, postal employee Eugene Benroth was credited with the idea for the program.

According to www.amortization.org/, $1 in 1947 equivalent to  $14.27 in 2024, with inflation averaging 3.51% from 1947 to 2024.